UPCOMING RAVES

Raves are on the rise in Iowa and gaining increasing recognition as a force
within the mainstream entertainment scene.

Raves, which are all-night dance parties fueled by a lineup of
turntable-spinning DJs who pump out a continuous mix of electronic music,
became common in Y2K around the state. Hundreds of young dancers now
routinely flock to these local events on a given weekend, instead of having
to trek to nearby Midwest cities to dance the night away.

A few local promoters are producing the raves and steadily learning the
ropes of the business world. Here are some of the key issues and people
involved:

To throw a dance party, you need to find the proper place: Melanie Hutchins
manages Stagecoach Spaces, a "mini-convention center" housed in a former
Western-wear store just beyond Des Moines city limits, in Saylor Township.
It plays host to wedding receptions and training sessions as well as a
regular schedule of raves; it's booked an average of about one rave every
other month since its first such event in April 2000.

Stagecoach benefits from its location just beyond Des Moines city limits,
avoiding an ordinance against public dancing past 2 a.m.

"I think it's really sad that there's not more things for young people in
this area to do," said Hutchins, who has seen as many as 1,000 ravers fill
Stagecoach on a single night.

Aaron Danielson, a k a DJ Nnothing, is the leader of Invasion crew, one of
the local DJ collectives dedicated to producing the raves. Invasion's "Year
of the Golden Snake" on Saturday near Adel will be its ninth such Des
Moines-area event. He said that more venues need to be willing to open
their doors to the rave scene in order for it to thrive.

"A lot of people have this stigma against the parties," Danielson said.
"They don't want their place being used for a rave." Both Hutchins and
Danielson said that to date they haven't encountered a major problem at any
of their events.

Local music stores are waking up to the rave scene. The Record Collector in
Iowa City has long stocked vinyl for DJs, and now both Zzz Records, in
downtown Des Moines' Masonic Temple, and Slipped Disc, a new shop in Valley
Junction, have said that they will seek out the music.

Rave's local roots run deeper than the past year: Just as modern rave
culture in general can be traced back at least to the dance parties that
became popular in England in the 1980s, Des Moines' own scene didn't sprout
overnight.

The Sound Proof Coalition (SPC), a Des Moines DJ collective led by Sid
Wilson (DJ Starscream, also a member of metal band Slipknot) and Pat
Williams (DJ Phase II), was among the groups involved in Des Moines' early
'90s rave scene. On the eve of Easter Sunday 1994, the SPC produced its
first rave and attracted 500 dancers to southeast Des Moines. Then, as now,
ravers are struggling to make local politicians and businesspeople
understand that all-night dancing should not be equated with hooliganism.

"If there were multiple venues for people to go to between 2 and 5 a.m.,
people could sober up, have something to do," Williams said. "It would
increase culture, tourism, there would be friendships forged."

The rave scene will have to do its part, too, he added, with its biggest
challenge being to better organize itself and subscribe to basic business
ethics.

"If everybody could learn to seriously talk to each other and get along, we
could have a thriving scene," he said.

Rave also is moving into local clubs: More and more established live music
clubs (Hairy Marys in Des Moines, Boheme Bistro in Ames, Gabe's in Iowa
City, etc.) cater to the rave crowd with specific DJ/techno nights, but
there are now clubs whose entire mission is rave culture.

The Buzz, 204 Third St., is the rave vestige of Larry Smithson's Des Moines
nightclub empire, while Club Ibiza, 101 Fourth St., is the result of its
owner witnessing Miami's thriving scene. Fog machines, lasers and black
lights create an atmosphere where many ravers begin the evening before
moving onto the larger all-night parties. Almost 400 people reportedly
attended Ibiza this past Saturday.

What about this drug, Ecstasy?: The media's laser-like focus on Ecstasy
(technical acronym: MDMA) whenever they report on raves has fueled both the
public's fears of the growing scene and ravers' anger that they're destined
to be forever misunderstood by the mainstream.

Originally from the Washington, D.C., area, Anne Bunner, a junior at Iowa
State University in Ames who's majoring in biochemistry, attended her first
rave last July, in Iowa. She cringes at ravers being stereotyped as Ecstasy
gobblers.

"It's as much of an element as marijuana is at a Phish concert," Bunner
said said of the drug. "It's ridiculous to assume that everybody's on it.
It's ridiculous to assume that it's not there."

There are ravers who would prefer that the mainstream simply leave them alone.

"Well, the scene is a lot larger now than it was a few years ago, due to
all the DAMN media publishing stuff about our scene," one local raver wrote
in response to a query that this reporter posted on an Iowa e-mail chat
group. "It brings a bunch of unwanted peeps (people) to the parties. Our
scene is SUPPOSED to be UNDERGROUND."

The rave scene, Bunner said, is far less drug-oriented than the
alcohol-soaked bar scene.

"At first parties were time to, like, get together and have fun with
friends and try to get hit on," she said. "Now it's a time to hear good
music. It's the transition from bar culture to raver culture."

It's all about the fellowship, ravers say: Bunner's circle of friends has
widened in the past year to include more than 100 fellow ravers whom she
regularly sees at local events. She and her roommate have even named their
apartment "the Chatteaux" and regularly host their own dance parties -- the
smallest and most intimate manifestation of the rave scene.

"When I went to my first party I just felt accepted for the first time
ever," Invasion leader Danielsen said. "It was the first place where
everybody was nice to everybody. In throwing my events I want to create
that environment for other people."